by Chaucer

Estates Satire:

• The Three Estates: (social division during Feudalism, roughly equivalent to classes)
  • First Estate -- The Church
  • Second Estate -- The Nobility
  • Third Estate -- The Peasantry
• Estates Satire is a genre of literature which mocks and critiques the class tensions, the stereotypes, and the abuses that existed amongst and within the three estates; estates satire is usually focused mostly on the clergy.

Fabliaux (see the Miller's Tale and the Reeve's Tale)

• humorous French genre
• features the peasantry
• features the body and bodily functions-- sex, defecation, pissing, farting, and eating;
• features coarse language
• features characters who tend to be rebellious and subversive.
• features tricksters admired for their cleverness rather than their morals

Discussion Questions:

1. What season is described in the opening passage of The Canterbury Tales? What do people especially want to do when this season comes, according to the narrator?
2. Consider the Miller's Tale as a satire of courtly love.
3. How is Alison (Miller's Tale) described? What type of imagery is used?
4. Does Chaucer seem sympathetic to Alison's unhappiness with her husband?
5. Discuss the three men in the Miller's Tale. Do any of them seem sympathetic or admirable? what do you make of the "punishment" each man receives?
6. In the Reeve's Tale, does Chaucer seem sympathetic to the Reeve? Why or why not?
7. Discuss the women's attitudes toward the night's sex romp in the Reeve's Tale.
8. Discuss the anti-Semitism that is evident in the Prioress' Tale.